


Retirement Blues

by Maya_Chevalia



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-09-14 21:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9204215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maya_Chevalia/pseuds/Maya_Chevalia
Summary: You are a retired special ops soldier bored with civilian life, you decide to hire hitmen off of the dark web to kill you as a form of entertainment.





	1. Chapter 1

."How's retirement suiting you, Commander?" Her best friend, Garrus, asks mockingly.  
After years in service to the Alliance military, they'd forcefully _retired_ Vecia. If they thought giving her a decently high stipend and multiple freedoms would placate her, they were very wrong. She only ever really felt right when she had a gun in her hand and a half dead sheild.  
"You know very well just how my _retirement ___is suiting me Vakarian," she sneers.  
"I know," a sigh, "what they did wasn't right. We miss you out there, Shepard. You were a damn good Commander. Tali doesn't feel right taking your place."  
"I'd much rather her, than the alternative." The sound of his omnitool pinging to life brings fourth a wistful breath from Shepard.  
"Go, go. Have Fun. Kill a few mercs for me," she grins and waves his apologies off.  
Sitting alone in the small cafe, her eyes roam, spotting every nook and cranny where the ememy could take her out. It's been months since she had a half decent fight, the last one a drunken brawl in a bar on the Presidium, but that hadn't dulled her senses even a little. All of the fair fighters were off-limits to her, and would be considered murder if she went vigilante. Perhaps bounty hunting would be how she fulfilled her now boring civilian days.  
Taking the elevator to the Zakera Ward, and then a skycar to her apartments, she stares blankly out at the scenery. _How does anyone live like this? Doing the same thing, day after day?_ She bustles around her apartment, cleaning to give herself the illusion of productivity. Tossing a shirt into the hamper, Vecia stops to admire the setting sun from her window. She paid decent money to have a top floor with the best view. Her eyes wander until they stop on a dark splotch on the side of one of the finer buildings in the Zakera Ward. Rapidly moving up, she decides that it's a person.  
Vecia quickly grabs her sniper rifle from the gun rack hidden in her wall, using the scope to better assess the situation. A Drell from the coloring, different shadings of green and the frills give it away. He moves quickly, efficiently, scaling the side of the building determinedly. A black coat flutters as skycars zoom by unaware. Her breath hitches in excitement. An assassin, she can kill. Her fingers itches against the trigger as her mind wars against itself. _It would be wrong to kill a man unaware._ She opens the window and steps onto the balcony, readying her rifle on the rail as she turns on her _lazor pointer_ , as she so fondly calls it.  
He freezes in the scope as the red dot dances just off to his left side. She steadies her aim and fires one warning shot at him, watching as it harmlessly bounces off of his shattering shield. The next shot would penetrate. He panics and breaks a window, escaping into the building as another muted shot breaks the glass next to him. Vecia curses loudly as he leaves her sight, she was never very good with a sniper rifle.


	2. I've Never Had a Better Terrible Idea

_"What do you mean there was an assassin?!"_ Tali shrieks into the comm.  
"I saw him scaling the buildings across from my apartment." Vecia loads a heat sink into her SMG. "I almost got him but the bastard was quick," she lies.  
 _"You're just a shit aim with a sniper, Shep,"_ Garrus sniggers when the sound of gunfire mutes, indicating that he'd taken cover.  
"Get shot, punk," she retorts quickly.  
 _"Perhaps now was not a good time to hack the comm link, Shepard?"_ Liaras stressed tone causes worry to coil in her stomach.  
"Status report," Vecia demands, her many years as Commander Shepard drawing to the forefront.  
 _"We're pinned down, Liara is trying to cover us with biotics and gunfire but we've been here for three hours. Tali has a suit puncture, and if I lean out of cover there's a sniper waiting to take my head off,"_ Garrus snaps out swiftly, taking note of her no-nonsense attitude.  
"Can one of you get me a visual on the area?"  
 _"There are cameras located up top, it's how they saw us coming. They're very well hidden and almost hack-proof. They saw us before I could disable them,"_ Tali relays.  
Vecia grabs her omnitool, working to quickly hack into the cameras and get her eyes on the situation. Behind a large cargo crate, Garrus is hiding, not far from where Tali took cover. Liara is the closest to the enemy units, trying to pick them off with biotic detonations and well aimed shots from her pistol. The sniper Garrus was talking about was siting Liara, getting ready to take the shot from her new position.  
"Garrus! Nemesis two o'clock! Liara duck!"   
Liara instantly drops and Garrus peaks out of cover long enough to rain bullets into his target.  
"Tali if that hole is patched up, sneak around their nine o'clock, there's cover there, throw out your combat drone and let it get to work. Liara take a break and let Garrus provide cover fire while you retreat." Vecia barks out orders and the enemy begins to fall back from the renewed assault.  
While they fight through troops, she gives them orders and hacks through the systems, opening doors and retrieving data as long as she can, relishing the action even if she isn't participating in the actual gun fighting. Eventually her team comes to the end of a hallway and Shepard is out of surveillance cameras.  
"Well, this is where you're on your own guys, there's no feeds beyond this door. I can compile the data I collected and forward it to you Tali. Good luck, stay safe." She cuts the comm channel off and sits back, clutching her SMG to her chest and dropping her head onto the back of the couch. _I miss all the action._  
An idea begins to form in her head, and she follows the train of thought to the darker parts of the Extranet. She browses through face after face. Krogan, Batarian, Asari, Turian, nothing, nothing, nothing! The only one tough enough looking to take her out looked to be a Krogan Sentinel by the name of Urdnot Grog, overly large for a Krogan with a deep red hide and mean looking facial scarring. Out of respect for Wrex's clan she wouldn't hire him. With a puff of air she clicked the final page, where only one name and a description read:  
 **Thane Krios**  
 **Drell assassin trained in the Compact by Hanar.**  
 **Contact Barla Von for hiring details.**  
 _Perhaps this is the same Drell from yesterday,_ she wonders. She knew where to find Barla Von. The Shadow Broker agent always came away richer from a meeting with Vecia if she had trouble finding a target when she was special ops, rare as that was. Excitement coursed through her as she typed up a profile for a hit on herself and forwarded it to Barla Von with a hefty sum of credits attached, along with specifications for her chosen assassin. _This may be crazy, but I've never had a better terrible idea._


	3. Let The Games Begin

_"I would ask why you're doing this," kshhh "but you special ops people have odd tastes in what you deem fun." Kshhh._ The Volus speaks through the screen.

"Don't tell him who hired him. I think I've paid you well enough for that. Just send him all the information I sent to you and things should get a little more interesting."

Vecia was already digging out her old equipment, fine tuning her military grade omnitool and amping her shields. Her weapons had already been cleaned and loaded in her excitement. She'd sent off the data to Tali, there was nothing left to do but wait.

Like any good assassin, she assumes he'll observe her for a few days to understand her routine. Seeing as she doesn't even have one, this would be a challenge. She hacks into Barla Vons office as discreetly as she can.

_"I have a new assignment for you if you're interested," kshhh. "There's a decent payout." Kshhh._ He tells who she assumes is Thane.

_"Send me the information regarding the target and I will review it."_

The gravel of his voice almost takes her by surprise, _do all Drell sound like that?_ Shaking off her initial reaction, she realizes that their business is concluded and backs out of the server. She wonders idly if he would recognize her as the sniper based on the location of her apartment. Concealing her SMG in the holster at the small of her back, she begins getting dressed to walk around. _Best not to look like a shut in, that would be too easy._

She sits in a cafe down the street from her apartment and starts typing to Tali on her omnitool, asking about the warehouse. A ping indicates her response and Vecia reads the report quickly. Apparently her old team was investigating a rogue special ops cell in the Alliance going by the name of Cerberus. They've been raiding Alliance supply cruisers, and launching terror attacks on outlying alien colonies. All in all, more trouble than they should be. Half-way through the message she can feel eyes on her. _He works quickly,_ she thinks.

Subtlety scanning the room, she finds him in the darkest place with the best view. _Smart._ Her eyes pass him quickly in the hopes that he shrugs it off as old habits from a retired Commander. Relaxing into her seat, she flags down a waitress and orders a cup of coffee, absently flirting with the Turian as a way to distract herself from the assassin watching her. His eyes weigh down on her as she sips her drink, scalding her lips a bit out of habit. The coffee was always cold by the time she got to it when she lived with her team.

Garrus was always the first to be awake, the military-esc lifestyle of the Turians demanded it. Liara, ever the morning person would be up swiftly after, cooking weird Asari foods that were always delicious but questionable. Next would be Grunt, her adopted son, shuffling into the kitchen in search of breakfast, followed closely by the Quarian engineer, who always made the coffee. Jack, the only other human on her team, was not a morning person. She would always sweep through the kitchen, grabbing coffee and food, and then disappearing just as quickly. By the time Shepard made it into the kitchen, still unused to the day shift in space, Liara was wrapping the leftovers and setting her frigid coffee in front of her.

Sighing unhappily at the nostalgia, she notices, she no longer feels the intense gaze on her. Vecia's eyes dart to his corner and sees that the assassin is gone and curses, chugging the remainder of the now cooled cup and transferring credits to the shop. _He could be anywhere, if he's half as determined as the other day he could be trying to finish me off as soon as possible._ Paranoia makes her light on her feet as she eyes the crowd, sure that there's no way she wouldn't notice a Drell. Not many of their race leave Kahje afterall.

Her searching orbs meet with the deep, inky blackness of irisless eyes. _Beautiful_ , the brief thought crosses her mind, and then she's on the move. She hadn't actually expected him to go straight for her, but she was prepared. Veering through the throngs of people, she turns off into an alley, heading for one of many maintenance shafts spotting the Citadel. She deploys a stun turret behind her, on the off chance that he follows and works on hacking open the door. A faint fizzling sound alerts her to the presence of her assassin.

"I know you. You tried to kill me. You're a terrible sniper," his voice floats over to her. She holds back an angry huff.

"Maybe I missed on purpose."

"The angle was wrong. If you wanted to kill me you should have aimed higher," he advises.

"Maybe I don't want to kill you?" A sly grin stretches across her face as the doors locks glide open. 

She walks backwards, putting distance between herself and Thane when he pulls a silenced pistol from nowhere. Vecia reciprocates by drawing her M-12 Locust and making sure to keep a steady aim at his head. He lost this round, her SMG would rip through his shields and body long before his pistol would get through hers. 

"Let the games begin," and she falls into the maintenance shaft, jamming the door behind her as bullets slam again her shields the moment she turns away.


	4. This Oughtta Be Good

" **Welcome to the Armax Arsenal Arena. **" The sound of the automation begins, but Vecia drowns it out, having heard it so many times before. In the long months she'd been retired the only place she could find solace was, ironically, a glorified gun range. It helps that her son always wanted to visit on shore leave, and she enjoyed nothing more than the sound of his booming laughter as he slaughtered holograms.****

****_"I. Am. Krogan!" _Grunt bellows and sends a concussive shot into the face of another Cerberus operative. Vecia leans against the railing and waits for him to finish his opponents, absently buffing the shields on her turret. Waiting for the next round to start, she looks at the fairly large crowd watching from the seats above. _This would be a great place for that assassin to cheap shot me.___** **

****___She empties a clip into several holograms and redeploys her turret after having it taken out by a Phantom. Panting, she ducks into cover to reload. She can hear Grunt shouting _Atlas _from a crate several meters away as she grabs the unsuspecting Phantom and jams her omni-blade in the holographic chest with frustration. An explosion rocks the arena and an Engineer retreats in her direction, Grunts chuckles following. She breaks through his shield and guns him down. They hear the call of _one enemy left _and finish up their game. Leaving the arena with eight thousand points, and the Silver Sun Strip with a pocket full off cash, she and Grunt settle down at a noodle shop. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a Drell._____ _ _ ** **

****_______"How is everyone?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"About the same as always, Jack put me on my ass a few days ago!" He grins._ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"I miss the team," Shepard sighs, dipping her fork into her noodles and slurping. She doesn't have to A lady around Grunt._ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"It's not the same without you, Shepard. I wonder if I could threaten those Alliance pyjaks into giving us our old battle master back! I heard you saved the Turians hide the other day." His eyes gleam as he fishes for information, causing a laugh to slip out of Vecia._ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"I imagine he isn't getting any slack for that, and don't go threatening the Alliance, they'll just send you back to Tuchanka, and then I'll have to ask permission from Wrex to come see you."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"Oh c'mon, he's still sore about losing to you that time on Feros?" A look is all Grunt needs for another round of chuckling to commence. A soft zooming sound bounces around Shepards head and a part of her recognizes it as the sound of a Nemesis sniper. She's ducking under the table second before the glass shatters. The chaos is immediate, civilians rushing to get away while her angry Krogan pulls out his shotgun and starts searching for a target._ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

****_______"You okay Shepard?" He shouts over the screaming, but doesn't wait for an answer, taking off in the direction the shot came from. A motley scaled hand pulls her up and drags her out of the restaurant, leather registers in her vision and she starts to struggle._ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** **

********_______" _Let me go! _" Unfortunately his grip is tight and his posture is loose enough to avoid any of her attempts to disable him. As an assassin he likely excels at hand to hand combat, while as an Engineer she has a distinct disadvantage.___  
_  
_  
_ _ _ _

****___ _ ** **

******__  
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****

****

********

****____****______"I'm bringing you to safety, please calm down ma'am." The voice, however, isn't the one she was expecting. It was light, raspy, not the deep gravel of Thanes. Looking up at him closer, she realizes that, while they do look strangely similar, the coloring is off. This Drell has more blue in his scales than green._ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****______"I'm sorry, I was panicked," she gets out quickly, standing straight and moving with renewed purpose. "Where are you taking me?"_ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****______He doesn't answer and simply brings her inside of a complex, cheaper apartments by the looks of it, if anything on the Silver Sun Strip could look cheap. He sets down his belongings and she notices a badge. C- Sec. _I'll have to tread carefully. _____ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________"Thanks for getting me out of there."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________"You're just lucky you ducked when you did. No doubt whoever that was would've killed you otherwise." She snorts at that._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________"Not likely, I just came from the Armax arena. I'm still wearing my shield." _I'm always wearing my shield. _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________"Oh! So you're Shepard? My father and I were there watching you. That Krogan is intense," he jokes._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________"Grunt gets really into it. So, you know who I am, but might I ask for your name?" She relaxes a bit._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________"Kolyat Krios, it's nice to meet you." She freezes in place. _Krios. _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________"Your father wouldn't happen to be _Thane _would he?" Kolyat sharpens with suspicion and his fingers inch slowly toward his weapon holster.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****______________"Yes, how'd you meet?" _Interesting, so he knows his father has enemies. Smart boy. _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________________"Would you believe me if I told you work?" A lazy grin makes its way onto her face and Kolyat pulls his gun._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________________"I'm taking you into custody. You're coming to C- Sec with me."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________________"Oh good, so you obviously know what your father does for a living. I'm not here for revenge or anything like that, in fact, _you _brought _me _here remember? I wasn't even aware Thane had a son. Can you put the gun away, I've already been shot at once today."_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"How did you meet?" He repeats._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"I tried to kill her," the thick gravel of Thanes voice fills the tense air between us._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"Here to finish me off? I didn't know you had to have the help of children to complete a mark." Vecia teases._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"It's happenstance that you encountered my son today. I didn't realize it was you until I saw you in the arena. Normally you're too far down to see, but I remember the way you move. When you decided to sit down with the Krogan in the same shop as my son and I, I figured it best that you didn't see me. You've been Kolyats favorite combatant since you started a few months ago." Kolyats frills darken in what Vecia can only assume is embarrassment._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"So where do we go from here?" Kolyat asks._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"I traced the hit back to you, Shepard, after my initial attack you seemed far too prepared."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"I was bored. Civilian life isn't for me."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"You special ops have strange hobbies. Did you put out a secondary hit in case I failed?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________"Nope, you were the only assassin I hired. I have no idea why I was being shot at today," she admits reluctantly. The sound of her omnitool beeping causes Kolyat to tighten his grip on the gun. She grins and answers it, despite warning looks from both Drell._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****____________________" _Shepard! I caught that bastard that shot at you. Jack's interrogating them back on the Normandy. Cerberus pyjak, _" Grunt informs.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****______________________"You did good, I'm proud of you, just make sure you can actually get some information out of them before Jack rips their head off," she smiles._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****______________________" _Are you at home? _" she hears Garrus ask.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****________________________"No, I'm at a recently acquired friends house. They've been lovely enough to let me stay." Garrus hangs up, but she knows he's tracking her omnitool location. They'd come up with a code, on the off chance one of them was ever in a dangerous situation and unable to give details, the phrase _recently acquired friends _was a warning.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________________________"That was Cerberus who targeted you?" Thane questions._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________________________"That's what they told me."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________________________"Who exactly are you. You're special ops, but that's not enough to merrit and assassination attempt on the Citadel."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________________________The door is kicked in by a charging Krogan, and Garrus stands behind him with his Vindicator aimed directly at Thane, Liara taking flank._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **

****____****__________________________"Well, this oughtta be good."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ** ** _ _ _ _ ** **


	5. Back in the Game

"Well boys, it seems we're at a stalemate," Vecia grins. Kolyat jams his gun into her face and Liaras' finger itches on the trigger.  
  
"It would seem so," echoes Thane, "how did you find us?"  
  
"Tracked her omni-tool," Garrus growls out, staring down Kolyat.  
  
With a heavy sigh, Shepard dodges to the side, wrapping her fingers around Kolyats hand and hitting a pressure point in his wrist. She fluidly disarms him and points the gun into his stunned face, casually leaning against the couch.  
  
"Now, first order of business, Thane release the gun you've got hidden in your coat, and remove all weaponry from your person. I'm not gonna shoot Kolyat, and I'm really tired of having guns pointed at me." Garrus takes her speech as his cue to grab Kolyat and place him next to Grunt, at the center of their little formation. Thanes eyes follow their movement with an almost frightening focus.  
  
"Don't do anything dad, if she wanted us dead we'd be dead. It probably sounds stupid, but I trust her," the younger Drell tells him with a measure of reluctance.  
  
"Finally! At least one of you have some sense!" She teases. Thane relents and drops his weaponry just as the comms go off.  
  
"Jack got some info out of that Cerberus bastard," Talis soft accent drifts out of Liaras omni- tool.  
  
"Report," Vecia demands.  
  
"She had orders to take you out, they found out you were retired special ops. They also traced your omni- tool location to the Citadel through that hack back at Firebase Glacier."  
  
Her lip curves slightly, but the smirk is gone before anyone, save Thane, could see it.  
  
"Guess I'm back in the game. Contact Anderson and let him know what's going on."  
  
"Yes ma'am," Garrus grins.


	6. I'm Not Sure What You're Talking About

Shepard is back on the Normandy, greeting her old crew with smiles and laughter. She even gets a slap on the shoulder from Jack, who's still covered in blood.  
  
"We still have your model ship collection in your quarters," Tali tells her.  
  
"You mean your quarters, I'm not your commander remember?"  
  
"She won't sleep in your room," Jack snorts out her laughter.  
  
"I'm keeping it the way you left it for when you come back." She defends herself.  
  
"You know that's pretty unlikely."  
  
Shepard pops open the door and discovers that Tali honestly hadn't touched anything. The model Citadel she'd been working on before her retirement was still half finished on her desk, her email blinking rapidly with many missed messages. Even her bed was left as it was, unmade, blankets on the floor from her constant tossing and turning.  
  
"To be honest I haven't even been in here," she says sheepishly.  
  
"You're a pig Shepard." Jack peeks her head in and takes a look around, sound in her accusation.  
  
"At least my laundry isn't in here," she defends.  
  
"There are miracles," Liara grins.  
  
"Did I ask for your opinion?" Vecia raises an eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips.  Laughter bubbles out of Tali and Liara.  
  
"I should probably clean up," she sighs.  
  
"You can do that later, who's the Drell that boarded with you?" Liara inquires.  
  
"That's Thane Krios. The assassin I hired to kill me."  
  
Liara shakes her head, Jack chuckles and takes a seat at her desk while they all catch up.  They're in the middle of a conversation about a trip to Feros and how Jack took out a squad like bowling pins with her shockwave, which of course sparks a conversation explaining bowling to Liara and Tali, when the intercom pings and EDI is telling Vecia to report to the debriefing room.  
  
"Commander Shepard," Hackett acknowledges with a look of suspicion.  
  
"Hackett! Anderson! Wow, it's been such a long time since we've spoken. Probably since my forced retirement!" Vecia grins cheerfully, sarcasm dripping from her words.  
  
"You know why we had to do that-"  
  
"Yeah yeah, orders from the brass. What shit," she dismisses his excuses. "Wanna tell me how my information was leaked?"  
  
It's been two weeks since her encounter with the Cerberus Sniper and the Brass was all over her case. Thane had taken to snooping in her business as well, and to say she was feeling crowded was an understatement. The Drell no longer cared about killing her, he was much more interested in why a special ops commander was so shrouded in mystery.  
  
"Your omni- tool. It appears a very intelligent virus incapacitated your firewall and extracted your personal information," Hackett informs.  
  
Garrus stands behind her, Tali to his left as they wait for the vid call to be over. Shepard rolls her eyes again and waits for them to finish their speech about why she shouldn't have hacked into a military comm unit in the first place, much less for a mission.  
  
"Was my information good at least?" She grumbles.  
  
"Actually-"  
  
"We have orders from the Brass Anderson." Hackett cuts him off with a serious look.  
  
"She deserves to know," he argues. Hackett sighs and nods, stepping back.  
  
"We've discovered that the encrypted keys on your information could possibly lead to the head quarters of the Cerberus group. They think you've got it.  They're trying to kill you."  
  
"Cool! When do I get suited up?" Vecia practically bounces on her toes.  
  
"The problem, is that we can't decrypt it. It's heavily coded. We've got our top engineers work in on it-" Shepard cuts him off with a snort.  
  
"Give me five minutes with it."  
  
"You're retired Vecia."  
  
"So reinstate me," she says slowly.  
  
"You know why we can't do that."  
  
"That psych eval after Torfan was bullshit!" She growls.  
  
"You punched a reporter Shepard."  
  
"That wasn't because of Torfan," she chuckles, a gleam in her eyes, "That's because she was a nosy bitch." She can hear Garrus stifle his laughter.  
  
"We'll discuss this at length Shepard. Hackett out." The call cuts and Vecia drags her hand down her face with force.  
  
"So, tell me the truth Shep, you didn't get hacked did you." Garrus says it more like a statement and less like a question.  
  
"I'm not sure what you're talking about."


End file.
